Here is a disturbing and disgusting recount of a continuous two year spill in the state of Washington from Stuart Whitford, a Water Quality Program Manager from the Kitsap County (WA) Health District. Unfortunately this type of spill happens more often than we are aware or are lead to believe.

"A recent sewage spill in Kitsap County (WA) highlights the need for H.R. 2452. At 1:30 p.m. on June 27, 2007, the City of Port Orchard reported a sewage spill to the Health District. They reported that a small spill occurred when a gravity main plugged, forcing sewage out of a manhole onto the surface of the ground. The area was fairly overgrown with vegetation, so it appeared to City wastewater personnel that the spill was limited to the immediate area around the manhole. The plug was removed, and dolomite lime was spread on the ground in the area to soak up any remaining liquid, control odors and inactivate pathogens.

The Health District visited the site that afternoon and verified the main had been restored to service and the immediate area cleaned up. However, the inspector observed a fairly steep drop off just below the manhole and decided to push further into the brush just to make sure that no sewage had made it down the hill. What he saw was shocking - a fifteen foot wide swath of grey slime oozing down the hill, with all the vegetation and trees standing lifeless. Unable to continue his investigation above the spill, he decided to get below it. He found a dirt access road down the slope from the sewer main that led to a city sewer pump station, private stormwater pond, and wetlands. As he approached the stormwater pond the smell of sewage became overpowering. When he reached the perimeter fence he could see that the entire pond was filled with sewage, and every tree and shrub on its banks was dead. Looking up the hill just above the pond, he could see the swath of sewage reaching form the top of the hill into the stormwater pond.

The Health District and the Coty then analyzed the pump "run-time" data for the nearby sewage pump station, immediately down-slope of the sewer main that had plugged. This data had been collected by the City on a daily basis by visiting the pump station, reading the meters, and recording the time for each pump. The pump "run-time" data was graphed for the past two years, and the results were startling. We determined that the spill had actually started occurring two years previous, on June 12, 2005. Since that date, approximately 6510 gallons of raw sewage per day had been discharging to the stormwater pond and nearby wetlands. This means that a total of 4,843,440 gallons of raw sewage had been spilled."

- Stuart Whitfiord, R.S., Water Quality Program Manager, Kitsap County Health District. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment regarding "The Raw Sewage Overflow community Right to Know Act." October 16, 2007